I have a few flooring questions, thanks in advance. I am renovating my
kitchen floor. The house is a New England cape that was built in 1947.
My goal is remove the linoleum and have a wood floor in the kitchen.
There is 2 ¼ inch red oak flooring throughout the rest of the house.
When I tore up the linoleum in the kitchen I found a layer of tarpaper
that has bonded to some wood flooring that is 3 ¼ inches wide. I
expected the wood to be 2 ¼ as it is throughout the rest of the house.
The tarpaper is very difficult to remove even with a blade scraper. Is
a floor sander the best way to get this tarpaper off? I am hoping this
wood is oak. Does anyone know why the builders would have installed a
wider floor in the kitchen area? If this turns out to be a softer pine
that was just used as an underlayment for the linoleum, would you
finish it or just tear it out ( along with the ¾ inch subfloor) and
put down new ¾ x 2 1/4-inch hardwood over a ¾ inch plywood subfloor?